


Gonta's Christmas Masterclass

by CharlotteML



Series: Dangan Ronpa Christmas Fics [4]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Christmas Fluff, First Christmas, Gen, Spoiler for Gonta's final FTE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 00:12:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13111584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharlotteML/pseuds/CharlotteML
Summary: Gonta can't remember ever celebrating Christmas, so his friends decide to give him a quick Masterclass about it.(Written for the 2017 Dangan Ronpa Secret Santa event on tumble)





	Gonta's Christmas Masterclass

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @dokoel on tumblr as part of a secret santa event.  
> Contains a spoiler for Gonta's final FTE.

The hallways of Hope’s Peak were far quieter than usual, many of the students having chosen to return home over the winter holidays. However, there were some who chose to stay within the school instead, either because their talents involved looking after fauna or flora that they did not want to leave unattended, or because they didn’t have anywhere that they wanted to go home  _to…_

Three such students were currently making their way through the hallways towards the kitchen, returning from a shopping errand set by their friend…

“Teruteru order lots of food this week!” Gonta commented, as he struggled to peer over the large box of drinks, baking ingredients and vegetables that he was carrying back to the kitchen for the cook.

“Indeed, it is most fortunate that you are here to help us carry it all.” Korekiyo agreed, as he carefully walked several steps behind his two friends, mindful of Teruteru’s instructions not to allow damage to the eggs or delicate sugar decorations he was carrying.

“Still, can’t blame the guy…” Ryoma started, shifting the rucksack full of meat he was shouldering into a more comfortable position, “Between his talent as a cook, and him inviting his mother to the school for Christmas, he’s got plenty of reason to want to put on an impressive feast.”

“You mean… this all for  _one meal?”_ Gonta exclaimed, as they finally entered the kitchen, where Teruteru was already busy at the stove, preparing pans full of cranberry, apple and mint sauces ahead of schedule. “Gonta not realise Christmas was so much work…”

“What… are you one of those guys who just sits back and watches their mother slave away in the kitchen?” The cook asked irritably, not looking away from the pans he was stirring, “I’d have thought better of a  _gentleman_ …”

“Ahh… Gonta sorry!” The entomologist cringed, “But… Gonta not remember any Christmases before now!”

“You… _Ah!”_  Now it was Teruteru’s turn to look embarrassed, as he remembered Gonta’s upbringing. “I suppose your ‘forest family’ wouldn’t have even  _had_ a kitchen…”

“But, wait. What about your human family?” Ryoma asked, “You’ve been with them for a few years…”

“Well, while Christmas  _is_ a widely popular holiday, even being celebrated by some who do not believe in Christianity itself, there are many who do not recognise the day.” Korekiyo pointed out, “For example, many celebrate other winter festivals, such as Hannuka, Pancha Ganapati or Yule… or perhaps they do not feel the need to celebrate the passing of winter at all. Such festivals only originated because winter without our modern conveniences was a time of hardship, after all…”

“Hrmmm…” Gonta rumbled in deep thought, “Gonta wonder if… maybe Gonta’s human family too embarrassed by Gonta to include him at Christmas, because they know Gonta not know what to do for it…”

There was a brief moment of stunned silence at Gonta’s admission, before…

“Tch! Well… that’s a damn stupid reason not to include yo’ own  _family_ at Christmas!” Teruteru muttered, his irritation causing his original accent to slip out for a moment, before he caught himself.  _“Ahem… Buuut_ … if you’re worried about not knowing anything about Christmas, then you could always help me prepare Christmas dinner! That should give you some idea of what’s going on…”

“Hmm… that’s not a bad idea, actually…” Ryoma agreed, “And I haven’t finished buying presents for everyone yet, so if you want I can take you shopping and show you how to wrap them.”

“And, as I have been tasked with decorating one of the school’s Christmas trees this year, I can give you a practical lesson on the history of Christmas iconography.” Korekiyo added, “In exchange for some help with the lights, and decorating the very highest branches…”

“Yes! Gonta happy to help!” Gonta agreed, “Especially if friends will to give Gonta lessons on how to celebrate Christmas like gentleman! Then, next year, Gonta be able to show family what he learnt!”

And so it was decided that the three boys would give Gonta a masterclass on celebrating Christmas…

* * *

“This is a pine tree, a staple part of Christmas decoration.” Korekiyo was well and truly in his anthropological mind-set as he and Gonta approached the large tree that the school had tasked him with decorating, armed with several cardboard boxes of decorations. “Evergreen trees have been used in winter celebration for thousands of years, although nowadays, many people choose to buy an artificial, plastic tree that they can re-use many times, rather than have the inconvenience and potential damage to the environment of cutting down a real tree every year…”

“But why have tree inside at all?” Gonta asked, “Plastic not that good for environment, either.”

“Well… originally, the practise of having a tree in the home was introduced by the Pagans, to remind them to look forward to the upcoming spring. Oftentimes this would involve keeping small cherry or hawthorn trees in pots, and hope that by bringing them inside, they would flower early, during Yule.” Korekiyo explained, “Other times, piles of wood, or evergreen trees would be brought in and decorated to look as if they were flowering trees, with fruit and paper flowers.”

“So, tree is so people don’t forget spring?” Gonta asked, sceptically. “But even forest family not forget that!”

“Ah… that was only the  _original_ reason… once Christians spread across Europe and rose to power, they changed the meaning of the pagan yuletide holiday, but kept many traditions the same, so as to avoid resistance from those who would miss the celebration.” Korekiyo answered, “The tree changed from being a symbol of spring, decorated with fruit and flowers, to one of the everlasting life of Gods, decorated with candles and stars to celebrate the light he brought to the world…”

“Candles!?” Gonta looked worried, “Gonta not think fire and trees mix well…”

“Indeed… what should have been a joyous holiday often turned to tragedy, due to fires from carelessly placed candles. There was even a hospital that burned down in the nineteenth century, because of them.” Korekiyo agreed, rummaging through one of the boxes… “Which is why, nowadays, most people choose to decorate the tree with  _these…”_

The anthropologist lifted his arms out with a flourish that then turned into a look of frustration as he saw the tangled mess of wires and small bulbs that he had just lifted out of the box.

“Ah… little electric lights! Like lots of fireflys!” Gonta smiled at the decorations, “They pretty messy, though…”

“Indeed…” Korekiyo sighed, “Help me untangle these, please. We need to circle them around the tree…”

Half an hour of barely-contained frustration later, the two boys were staring contentedly at the tree as the lights flickered on and off in an array of bright and cheerful colours…

“Tree looks nice! Good thing firefly buddies aren’t here, though! They might get confused…” Gonta decided, “But now Gonta know how to decorate tree! Thank you, Korekiyo!”

“You are welcome… but we aren’t quite finished yet.” The anthropologist corrected him, “Although we  _have_ finished the worst part, and I have a feeling you might like this next decoration…” He reached into another box and brought out a length of silver tinsel to show Gonta.

“Hmm… It shiny, but just plastic…” Gonta wasn’t overly impressed with it, as Korekiyo had expected.

“Yes… however there is an old folktale behind it that you might like… Have you ever heard of the Christmas  _spider_ …?”

Gonta’s eyes lit up, and he eagerly helped Korekiyo wrap tinsel around the tree as the anthropologist recounted the East German story of a family too poor to afford Christmas decorations for their tree, only to awake on the morning and discover that the webs that a spider had woven on the tree had miraculously turned into strands of real silver and gold when they woke up on the day itself.

Then came out the baubles, which they hung on tree to the sounds of Korekiyo’s descriptions of the original glass-blowing techniques that had been developed by an inventor in the German town of Lauscha, which allowed them to mass-produce baubles that began to replace the use of fruits and other sweet treats… Although not entirely, as Korekiyo proved when he brought out a range of candy canes and chocolate medallions for them to hang out as well…

“Hmm… Tree is starting to get full…” Gonta pointed out, trying to find a branch to hang up a chocolate coin that didn’t already have something on it.

“Indeed. Fortunately, those were the last of the decorations we have to put up.” Korekiyo told him, looking around to see if anyone was watching them… “Perhaps, as these ones will not last another year in storage, we could just take these extras to our rooms and enjoy them ourselves… as payments for our services!”

“Ah, thank you!” Gonta smiles, “Bug buddies will enjoy eating chocolate… at least, a  _little_ bit…”

“Ah… then… in that case, give them my regards!” Korekiyo asked, quickly trying to think of an excuse to seem busy, in case Gonta intended to suggest he also come to watch the bugs eat their treat. “Unfortunately, I need to go and return these boxes to the school store room…”

“Hmm? You want Gonta to help?” Gonta instinctively offered, “Then, we could go and…”

“No, no! You’ve done quite enough today!” Korekiyo quickly cut him off, “And you still need to help Ryoma and Teruteru, don’t you?”

“Ah…  _right!”_ Korekiyo breathed a quiet slight of relief behind his mask as Gonta agreed with him, “See you on Christmas, Korekiyo!”

“Indeed… and may you have a Merry one!” Korekiyo replied, quickly scooping up the empty boxes and heading to the storage room, before the entomologist changed his mind…

He was halfway there before it occurred to him that he could also have explained the origins of different Christmas greetings. Ah well, that would make an interesting topic of discussion at Christmas dinner…

* * *

Buying presents had gone well. Ryoma had only had a few items left to pick up, and he’d thought about what he was buying people before going to the shops, so there was no endless browsing involved, at least not until he’d gone to the card shop and asked Gonta to help pick out wrapping paper. The entomologist had been surprisingly keen to make sure that the presents looked good, and had even insisted on them getting matching ribbons, bows and tags to decorate the presents with.

Ryoma had agreed to it, thinking that, if he was going to show Gonta how to wrap presents, he might as well go the whole hog and show him how to do it properly… If he could actually remember how, that was.

“So… how do we wrap presents, then?” Gonta asked, before they were even all the way into Ryoma’s room.

“Well… we can start with a box shape, that’s easiest…” Ryoma picked up a square box and showed Gonta how to measure out the correct size of wrapping paper, then tape it across the box and fold the paper sticking over the sides up so they could be taped down to cover the side of the box. Then he wrote out the tag wishing Shuichi a Merry Christmas and stuck it on with a small piece of tape. Easy enough, even if Ryoma’s folds were a little messy…

“So… do edges  _have_ to be jagged, like that?” Gonta asked.

“No… If anything, it’d be good if it was a bit neater, but people generally aren’t too fussy about how presents look when you’re giving them to them, so long as you make the effort to wrap them.” Ryoma assured him, “Do you want to try one yourself?”

“Hmmn!” Gonta nodded, so Ryoma hunted for another square package and gave it to him, before starting to wrap up a group of books in a kind of pyramid shape himself. And once he was done with that, he started wrapping up the awkwardly shaped model spaceship he’d got for Kaito…

And he  _still_  managed to finish that before Gonta announced that he was finished wrapping  _his_ …

“Are you alright there, Gonta?” Ryoma turned to see how the other boy was doing.

“Yeeeep… almost…” Gonta was gnawing at his lip in concentration, as he carefully lined up the last piece of tape on his present. “Got it! This look okay?”

Ryoma looked at the present Gonta was holding out. It looked  _more_ than okay to him, it was one of the most neatly wrapped presents he’d ever seen, and would have been  _the_ neatest, if he hadn’t already seen Kirumi’s presents under one of the trees.

“That’s great! Thanks, Gonta!” Ryoma gave him a thumbs up, “Maybe you can do Kirumi’s one for me, next…” If anyone would appreciate a present this nicely wrapped, it would be her…

“Alright!” Gonta nodded in agreement, “Gonta be  _extra_ careful with that one, then!”

‘Extra careful’ apparently meant taking  _four_ times the amount of time it took Ryoma to wrap a present up, but Ryoma had to admit that the present looked worth the amount of time he’d taken. Fortunately, after that one was done, Gonta went back to spending only twice as long as Ryoma was per present, meaning that he got to wrap two more out of the remaining five packages.

“So… now time for ribbons and bows?” Gonta asked.

“Ah… right.” Ryoma’s thoughts of being able to put the presents under one of the trees were dashed as Gonta pointed out the extra step he’d agreed to. “Well… the bows just have sticky backs on them, so you just have to peel the paper off and stick them on. And the ribbons just need tying on… like this!”

Ryoma demonstrated by tying a length of ribbon around the centre of Kaito’s present… only for the ribbon to start falling down the pointed nose of the ship…

“Ahh… hmm… that’s not right.” Ryoma realised, “Sorry, I’ve not done this in a few years…” That was, if he’d ever actually done it at all… He couldn’t remember if he’d ever bothered with ribbons before…

“Why not use other strands of ribbon to hold it in place?” Gonta asked, gently picking up the parcel and tying a length of ribbon around it at a ninety-degree angle to the first length, tying the two ribbons up so neither could move because it was attached to the other. “Like spider’s web!”

“Yeah… that looks more like it…” Ryoma remembered, “Although… wait, I think I’ve got it now!”

This time he wrapped a length of ribbon around one of the square presents, but instead of tying it up straight away, he crossed the two ends at right-angles across each other and ran them up the other two sides of the cube before tying them in a bow at the top…

 _“There!_ That’s how you do it!” Ryoma grinned with satisfaction at remembering the trick, then took a couple of bows and stuck them on top of the package for good measure.

“Alright! Gonta got it now!” Gonta enthused, taking the ribbon off of Kaito’s presents and tying a new piece on the proper way, then meticulously positioning two bows on top of the present. “Like this?”

“Yep!” Ryoma gave him another thumbs up, “Now we’ve just got to do that on every present, and then we can put them under the tree you decorated!”

“Great! Thank you, Ryoma!” Gonta nodded, as they each started working on a new present…

This time Gonta was a little quicker, with his longer arms making it easier to wrap the ribbon around the bigger parcels and him being able to peel the fiddly bits of paper off of the back of the bows more easily than Ryoma could, so they tied ribbons around the same number of the presents as each other, before taking them to the tree (which Ryoma had to admit looked great) and arranged them carefully underneath its branches, before heading back to Ryoma’s room and dealing with all the leftover scraps of paper and ribbon…

“May Gonta take them?” Gonta asked, “Bug buddies will like it!”

“Alright then!” Ryoma agreed. Giving it to the bugs to use as nesting material, or whatever Gotna had planned, saved Ryoma from having to trash it all…

But he made sure to hide a pair of bows and a longer piece of ribbon from Gonta. After all, he still hadn’t wrapped the entomologist’s present yet…

* * *

“How are those parsnips going, Gonta?” Teruteru called out, as he finished checking the temperature of the slowly roasting turkey and moved on to make sure that all the pots of soup that were on top of the stove were still gently simmering away.

“Almost done! All peeled, just last few to chop, now!” Gonta replied, much to the cook’s relief. It had definitely been worth the time to show the entomologist how best to prepare each and every vegetable he planned to serve at dinner…

“Good! Once you’re done with them, start on the cabbages!” Teruteru told him, as he himself checked that the Christmas pudding was still steaming away in its pot, then moved onto preparing multiple fish and tins of nuts for roasting…

It was Christmas day, and the pair had been cooped up in the kitchen for several hours already. First preparing hors d’oeuvres and drinks to tide over all the students and staff who’d remained in Hope’s Peak until dinner was prepared, then starting to roast the turkey, goose and various joints of red meat for the main course; pre-preparing a variety of soups and deserts to be quickly brought out at the right time and peeling and chopping the mountain of vegetables that were going to be cooked and served. And they still had more to do, as they approached what Teruteru had been referring to as ‘crunch time’ all morning, when he had to make sure everything started cook at exactly the right time, to ensure that it was all at the perfect temperature when it was served.

Gonta was starting to feel bad, watching the smaller boy scurry between different parts of the kitchen as he juggled it all. All  _he_ had had to do was follow he chef’s commands to weight out, peel and chop up various ingredients.

“There really nothing else Gonta can help with?” He asked, concerned.

“No, don’t you worry!” The chef assured him. “You’re helping out enough already!”

“But…  _Teruteru’s_  doing all the  _hard_ work!” Gonta argued.

“You don’t think doing all  _that_ was hard work!?” Teruteru exclaimed, gesturing to the length of the kitchen counter that Gonta had piled high with potatoes, sprouts, carrots and parsnips. “You really are strong! I’d have taken twice as long as you have to do all that!”

“Really!? Gonta’s strength is helping? That’s good!” Gonta smiled.

“Yes, yes… now hurry up with those cabbages!” Teruteru chivvied him along, “I need to pay attention to what  _I’m_ doing…”

“Ah! Got it!” Gonta apologetically nodded and reached for the first of several red and green cabbages he needed to shred.

The pair worked diligently to the sounds of meat crackling in the ovens, soups bubbling in their pots and the occasional clatter and clang of pots and pans being rearranged as Teruteru struggled to fit everything into the ovens at the same time, until an as-of-yet unheard creak came from the entrance to the kitchen…

“There sure are a lot of people out here!” The two boys paused as Teruteru’s mother poked her head tentatively into the kitchen, “Are you boys  _sure_ you don’t need any help…?”

“I  _told_ you, Mom! We’re fine!” Teruteru snapped, loudly. “Now go sit down before you make yourself sickagain!”

“Oh, don’t be silly! A little illness wouldn’t stop me making sure Christmas dinner is perfect!” Mrs Hanamura entered the room and started taking a closer look at how her son’s plans were progressing.

 _“Excuse me!?_  Are you saying I can’t cook!?” Teruteru bristled, “I can make everything perfect by  _myself!”_

“Well… You certainly  _look_ like everything under control…” His mother had to admit, it was impressively organised in here. As much as she was finding being left out of cooking Christmas dinner disorientating, insisting on trying to help would probably result in a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth… “But, at least let me set the table for you, dear!”

“No, that one of Gonta’s jobs!” Gonta insisted, “Gentleman can’t let lady do his work for him!”

“Oh…” Mrs Hanamura sighed in disappointment, “You’re  _sure_ there’s nothing I can do…?”

 _“Argg…”_ Teruteru signed irritably. As much as he’d been hoping his mother would just sit and let him handle everything, he also knew that wasn’t exactly in her nature… “You  _could_ make sure Gonta sets the table properly… But then  _SIT DOWN and stay outta ma kitchen!”_

“Alright, alright…” His mother laughed knowingly, before failing to convince Gonta to let her carry any of the cutlery out to the main dinner table.

“Hmm… is yelling at mothers  _supposed_ to be part of Christmas…?” Gonta asked, once the kitchen door had closed behind them.

“What…? Oh… no _,_ no,dear. Teru’s just getting a little worried about my health!” She laughed, “Don’t you be going and yelling at  _your_ folks, now! Everyone has to get along at Christmas!”

“They do!?” Gonta perked up, thinking of his two different families. “Even if they not like each other?”

“Well… There’s no guarantee  _everyone_  will _…”_ Hanamura frowned, “But I can tell you there’d be  _hell_ to pay if I slaved away in the kitchen for hours to make dinner, and then some darn fool ruined it by causing a ruckus at the table, and they  _know_ it!”

“Hmm… so, if Gonta made dinner for everyone, Forest Family and Human Family might get on better…?” Gonta checked, “But Gonta not able to do all  _this_ by himself…”

“Well… not all Christmas dinners have to be  _this_ big! My Teru’s showing off, putting all this on by himself…” Mrs Hanamura tried to comfort him, “Most people get their start by doing a few smaller dinners, first!”

“Ah, yes! Gonta already plan to do a small dinner for his buddies!” Gonta grinned, “Just need to make sure Teruteru doesn’t throw away peelings!”

“You’re… going to feed your friends vegetable peels…?” The older chef asked, “Is that some new fancy diet I haven’t heard of?”

“Hmm… not really. Vegetable peel always been good food for bugs…”

 _“Oooh!_  You’re… feeding  _bugs…!?”_ Mrs Hanamura struggled to sound impressed, having been warned by her son not to let her real thoughts on bugs being anywhere  _near_ food slip out near the giant entomologist. “That sounds nice…”

“Ah, you like bugs to, then?” Gonta asked, happily.

“Well… there’s no time for that, now! We’ve got a table to set, remember?”

“Right, sorry!” Gonta apologised and hurried towards the table, while Teruteru’s mother thanked her own quick wits for getting her out of  _that_  conversation…

* * *

The next morning, long after the group of four boys had eaten their fill of delicious Christmas foods, opened presents, and exchanged stories of Christmases past, a low hum began to fill the Ultimate Entomologist’s Lab. Night time was over, and the light of the hundred-odd warm bulbs that Gonta used to control the temperature and day/night-cycle of his bug buddies slowly began to turn on and warm up…

Wakey-wakey, bug buddies…” Gonta gently encouraged them all, once they began to shift and squirm as their bodies warmed up. “Gonta has big surprise for you all!”

He wasn’t sure if they’d understood. But they seemed to wake up and move out of their enclosures a little faster than usual. Perhaps they’d managed to pick up on the excitement in his voice, as he gestured to the upturned cardboard box he’d put in the middle of the Lab. Either way, they gradually made their way towards him…

“Merry Christmas, Everyone!” Gonta lifted the box to reveal a tiny pine tree that was propping up several unwrapped chocolate coins; several fresh plants and logs for them to make homes in, each wrapped in bright paper and ties up with ribbon; and a pile of leftover scraps from Christmas dinner for them all to feast on…

And feast they all did! Without even half as many fights over the food as Gonta had been expecting, such was the sheer amount of it available to them all.

“Good bugs! Everyone has to get along at Christmas!” He told them all, as the food began to run out and they made their was over to investigate and digest the wrapping paper covering the presents.

It looked like his first, small, Christmas celebration had been a success. Maybe, if his friends continued to teach him over the next few years he’d spend in the school, then he’d be good enough at Christmas to get his two families to get along for a day by the time he was finished at Hope’s Peak…

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you have a Merry Christmas!


End file.
